PIT Count Planning and AnalysisAided by Open Data and Open Source Tools

Kristin Zakoor, Assistant Director of Data, Texas Homeless Network

Danielle Winslow, Acting Deputy Director, All Home King County

Eddie Barber, Lead Developer, Simtech Solutions

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Texas Balance of State

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• Snapshot:

– 215 counties

– 25 Local Homeless Coalitions

– Mix of Urban, Suburban, Rural

– ~1000 volunteers

– Until 2018 used paper surveys then switched to mobile app

King County

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• Snapshot:– 39 cities, including Seattle– Mix of urban, suburban, and rural

areas– Mix of Urban, Suburban, Rural– ~1000 volunteers

• Count Includes– General Street Count – Youth and Young Adult Count– Sheltered Count (Emergency

Shelter, Safe Haven, and Transitional Housing)

– Peer-Conducted Survey

Pre-Count Planning(TX-BOS)

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• Outreach to communities• Designate PIT Leads and Back-ups• Create “Pre-PIT” materials

• PIT Lead manual• Promotional materials

• Develop a safety plan• Plan for adverse weather

Free tools: Google docs & forms, Tableau, Canva, Basecamp

Pre-Count Planning(King County)

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• Confirm Action Group that provides input and oversight of the PIT activities, including an equity impact analysis of PIT components

• Establish Area Leads by regional deployment center coverage area • Additional youth and young adult planning is done in partnership with general planning• For the first time in 2019, we used a customized volunteer registration platform that

allowed for volunteer team and census tract assignments

• Social media posts• Promotional materials • Partnerships

– Local Service Provider– Faith Based– Local Government– Law Enforcement + Fire Dept.– Higher Education

• Google Forms– Volunteer Registration + ROI

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Free tools: Google docs & forms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Canva

Recruitment(TX-BOS)

• Partnerships– PIT Action Group members– Local Service Provider– Faith Based– Local Government– Higher Education

• Past PIT guides, Consumer Advisory Council and Youth Action Board

• Advertisement in local paper, Real Change• Promotional materials and social media

posts

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Recruitment(King County)

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Count Planning(TX-BOS)

Sheltered:

• Identify and reach out to all ES & TH facilities

• Provide list of facilities to PIT Leads

– Send out PIT promotional materials

• Assess capacity to count

– Enlist extra volunteers for larger facilities

Unsheltered:

• Decide count method

• Create local partnerships

• Review previous year location data

• Develop “hot spot” maps, written guidelines, and directions

• Organize donations

• Assign teams

Form Point-in-Time Count Committee

Free tools: Google maps, Tableau, Doodle Poll

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Count Planning(King County)

• Assign volunteers to regions• Split regions into teams• Ensure each census tract is

covered by a team

Training(TX-BOS)• For PIT Leads and back-ups:

– All virtual trainings– Mandatory “train the trainer”

• How to use the tech• Q & A session

– PPTs and supplemental materials– Guidance on how to conduct volunteer training

• For volunteers:– In person training with PIT Leads– Online PPT training with knowledge check– “Quick-train” videos– Cheat Sheet materials

10Free tools: Google form, Canva, Venngage

Training(King County)• For volunteers, guides/surveyors (paid):

– Regional in person trainings made available– Online webinar trainings – Posted “Quick-train” videos – Are you ready “quiz”– Training components:

• Unconscious bias and impacts on data collection

• What is the PIT and our local methodology• How to complete a tally sheet and how to

identify signs of someone living in their vehicle

• Responsibility and safety 11

Messaging(TX-BOS)• Social media

• Local news and paper

– “How to engage” materials

• Discussed at CoC meetings

– Local meetings

• Listserv

12Free tools: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Canva

Messaging(King County)• Utilized customized volunteer portal

to message general and regional reminders and directions to volunteers

• Highlighted the importance AND limitations of trend data

• Discussed at CoC meetings

– Local meetings

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Night of the Count(TX-BOS)

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• 24 hour time frame• Community choice• Planned events• Community partnerships

• Staff monitoring regions• Data quality checks• Technical assistance

Free tools: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Canva

Night of the Count(King County)

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• Report to regional command center at 2:00AM to conduct observation count only

• Review how to complete census• Distribute any census tracts not assigned• Sign volunteer teams with guide out

• Staff monitoring team needs and returns• Data quality checks• Community breakfast

After the Count(TX-BOS) • Data clean-up

• Analysis

– CoC wide

– Community based

– Racial Disparities

• Community reports

• Extrapolation

• Thank you e-cards

16Free tools: Google sheets, Punchbowl, Tableau

After the Count(King County)• Paid peer surveyors conduct paper

surveys following the count

• Transitional housing projects conduct surveys with program participants

• Contractor receives tally and survey data

for extrapolation, analysis and reporting

• An electronic thank you and participation survey goes out to volunteers and guides

• We hold an appreciation celebration for Action Group Members and Area Leads

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Summary(TX-BOS)• Start planning early

• Get local buy-in

• Find a “champion” in each community

• Provide on-going support and supplemental materials

• Technology is a game changer

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Texas Balance of State Point in Time Count Results

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Summary(King County)

• Strategies to pave the way for technology

– Start thinking about it now

– Volunteer/guide experience

– Cost saving

– Efficiency and nimbleness

– Build on HMIS framework for data privacy

– Leverage partners outside of the CoC

For more information visit http://allhomekc.org/king-county-point-in-time-pit-count/

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Google Sheets

Benefits• Familiar interface (same as Excel)

• Allows for easy collaboration

• Very flexible

Drawbacks• Not secure

• Need to start from scratch

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Trello

Benefits• Great for tracking tasks

• Allows for uploading/sharing of various documents and images

• Sends email alerts

Drawbacks• Not secure

• Needs buy-in from all users

• Free version is limited in how many integrations it can do

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QGIS

Benefits• Fully-functional GIS software

• 100% free and open-source

• Can create beautiful maps for the count

• Great for doing analysis on past or current PIT Data

Drawbacks• Steep learning curve

• No dedicated support

• Does not allow for easy collaboration, not web-based

• Can be slow depending on your computer

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Tableau

Benefits• Tableau Public is free

• Can produce both graphs and maps if provided with the right data

Drawbacks• Learning curve

• Need to provide it with data in the correct format

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Join.Me

Benefits• Able to have a customized link for users

to quickly join a meeting/screensharing session

• Easy to set-up/join for meeting hosts and participants

Drawbacks• Free version limits number of meeting

participants

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EventBrite

Benefits• Great for planning/managing training

sessions

• No charge for free events

Drawbacks• Need to manually send link to list of

potential users for them to sign up

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Mailchimp

Benefits

• Allows you to send automated emails to volunteers regarding trainings/night of count information, etc.

Drawbacks

• Manually upload the list of users you’d like to email

• Free version limits on the number of users you can send to/emails that can be sent.

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Questions?

Eddie Barber – Eddie@simtechsolutions.comKristin Zakoor – Kristin@thn.orgDanielle Winslow - Danielle.Winslow@allhomekc.org